ggedly, falling back to his second line of defenses.

"To the contrary, my business is with you and not with Mr. Ridgway."

"I know of no business you can have with me."

"Wherefore I have brought you here to acquaint you with it."

The young man lifted his head reluctantly and waited. If he had been
willing to confess it to himself, he feared greatly this ruthless
spoiler who had built up the greatest fortune in the world from
thousands of wrecked lives. He felt himself choking, just as if those
skeleton fingers had been at his throat, but he promised himself ever
to yield.

The fathomless, dominant gaze caught and held his eyes. "Mr. Eaton, I
came here to crush Ridgway. I am going to stay here till I do. I'm
going to wipe him from the map of Montana--ruin him so utterly that he
can never recover. It has been my painful duty to do this with a
hundred men as strong and as confident as he is. After undertaking such
an enterprise, I have never faltered and never relented. The men I have
ruined were ruined beyond hope of recovery. None of them have ever
struggled to their feet again. I intend to make Waring Ridgway a
pauper."

Stephen Eaton could have conceived nothing more merciless than this
man's callous pronouncement, than the calm certainty of his
unemphasized words. He started to reply, but Harley took the words out
of his mouth.

"Don't make a mistake. Don't tie to the paltry successes he has gained.
I have not really begun to fight yet."

The young man had nothing to say. His heart was water. He accepted
Harley's words as true, for he had told himself the same thing a
hundred times. Why had Ridgway rejected the overtures of this colossus
of finance? It had been the sheerest folly born of madness to suppose
that anybody could stand against him.

"For Ridgway, the die is cast," the iron voice went on. "He is doomed
beyond hope. But there is still a chance for you. What do you consider
your interest in the Mesa Ore-producing Company worth, Mr. Eaton?"

The sudden question caught Eaton with the force of a surprise. "About
three hundred thousand dollars," he heard himself say; and it seemed to
him that his voice was speaking the words without his volition.

"I'm going to buy you out for twice that sum. Furthermore, I'm going to
take care of your future--going to see that you have a chance to rise."

The waverer's will was in flux, but the loyalty in him still protested.
"I can't desert my chief, Mr. Harley